Edinburgh Napier University

  The importance of sustainability is evident and each of us is encouraged to take part in sustainable behaviour in some way. However, do we know what sustainability really means and are young adults prepared to be sustainable to protect the Earth for another generation? The aim of this pilot study was to investigate, whether implementation of gamification principles in a mobile application called Urban Eco can raise awareness of sustainability amongst young adults aged between 16-30. This pilot study was conducted through unstructured interviews, questionnaires and observation to investigate the phenomena from the young adults’ point of view. Relevant data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, and it revealed that participants were deeply lacking in relevant knowledge of sustainability.

This illustrates that despite ongoing efforts, there is still space to improve young adult’s familiarity and understanding of sustainable behaviours. The initial findings were then used to inform the development of two prototype versions of The Urban Eco App. The two apps, Version A, lacking gamification, and Version B, including gamification were subsequently tested using AttrakDiff, followed up by open-end questionnaires. This study revealed, that while participants found the functionality of the applications similar, the application lacking gamification was rated as more pleasing. The follow up interviews did not reject or approve the hypothesis, that implementation of gamification can improve awareness of sustainability amongst young adults as participants shown similar improvements in both cases.